Human Interest Story

The Trouble for Convenience -
Montreal dépanneurs fined for their safety

Although it has been three years since the incident, Hua Chen still talks about what happened to him in August 2006.

“All I remember was the knife,” he said. “I didn’t care what they took […] I was scared for my life.”

At Dépanneur Hua Chen, his independently-run convenience store in Verdun, Chen experienced what most dépanneur workers dread; he was robbed.

But what unnerves him more is what happened after the incident.

During the robbery, the 54-year-old businessman managed to hit a panic button underneath his counter, which linked to a local police station. Forty-five minutes after the robbery took place, the police finally showed up.

“I was very upset. They should have helped me faster like police officers should,” he said.

The delayed help that Chen received was not caused by laziness, but from a number of previous false alarm calls the police received from his dépanneur, he said.

According to Montreal police, once a panic alarm is triggered, the call is only justified if the robber is armed or caught after the act of stealing. If not, the store’s owner can be fined as much as $700.

In Chen’s case, police officials had four false alarms on record from his convenience store. A year before the incident, he paid off two fines issued from false alarm panic calls; one of which was caused by accidentally triggering his security system.

“They didn’t think I was really in trouble,” he said.

Although Chen was not fined for this particular call, the suspect still managed to steal nearly $200 from Chen’s cash and take off with two cases of beer, while holding him at knifepoint.

“Working as store owners, we are always at risk of being robbed,” he said.

Another Verdun dépanneur owner knows too much of these situations. Iris He, a 32-year-old business graduate from Concordia University, said she has been robbed “more than 10 times” since she took ownership of the Dépanneur du Coin last year.

Similarly to Chen, He has been fined two other times in the past, both on the counts of her security system malfunctioning. In both cases, Alarme de Surete de Laval, the company responsible for wiring He’s security system, has reimbursed her portions of these fines.

“We do take a certain amount of responsibility,” said ASL chief inspector Francois Leblanc, “but we are never fully responsible for these systems malfunctioning.”

But getting fined from a faulty wire is rare, says He. The majority of the fines being distributed today are from panic calls that do not meet police law requirements.

“It really happens often. I have a lot of friends who have had the same experience,” she said.

Last March, He pushed a panic button when she felt her life was in danger. A man in his 40s or 50s entered her store early in the afternoon and suspiciously put two one-litre bottles of wine in his own plastic bag. When asked to pay, the man reached into his bag.

“I was scared – my heart jumped out of my chest,” she admitted, thinking that the man was pulling out knife or gun.

Before the police arrived, the suspect quietly left without any trouble. Last month, He was hit with a $636 fine, accused of not properly following the panic system’s codes.

“I feel like I am being taken advantage of,” she said. “I feel that City Hall is after my money.”

He is contesting the fine at Montreal’s City Hall and will be heading to Small Claims Court. She believes that, as a smaller business, the city is “strategically picking those that may be willing to shut down”

“The city won’t go banging on the doors of the big grocery store chains,” she said, “so why not start at a smaller business. Especially at those places which are run by immigrants. It’s easier for immigrants to lose their place.”

According to a study from Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business, most convenience stores in Montreal are independently run, with nearly 81 per cent of them owned by immigrants. He thinks that the city has gone too far with fines and is merely taking advantage of “minority groups.”

“I work 50 hours a week, 364 days in a year. I don’t have the time to cause problems with the city. But if they won’t treat me like a human being, I won’t stay quiet,” she said.

Although Chen was lucky in getting away without a fine three years ago, he still doesn’t feel safe in his working environment.

“Things have to change now. I am here all the time and need to know that if I need help, I can get it,” he said. “Feeling uncomfortable in your own business is very wrong.”